sun, soccer and letter writing

I had the most phenomenal weekend!
A friend I hadn't seen for nearly a year finally came down from Berlin to visit. We spend two lazy days lying in the sun and enjoying the heat. Saturday turned out to be a good day for german soccer fans and we celebrated this victory through the whole night. It was too hot to sleep anyway. It's a miracle that I got any mail done at all, but somehow I managed to write a long overdue letter to the lovely Anastasia,

as well as two first letters to two potentially new penpals. It's sad how boring these envelopes look, but I am always a little hesitant to send decorated letters to people who might not like it. So boring, normal stationery it is.

A few postcards go out to lovely people on sendsomething.net. If you love sending and getting random things in your mail, this is the site for you!

And now it is just too hot to sit in front of my laptop any longer so have the rest of my outgoing mail in one picture:




And because it is monday let's end this post with some exceptionally good music and one of the best music videos ever produced:

wordless wednesday

last weeks incoming mail

Oh I love Tuesdays. Tuesdays are fun. Tuesdays are always really good mail days. Look what my ever so trustworthy mail delivery man brought today:

First thing I received was a copy of "Good Mail Day" by Jennie Hinchcliff and Carolee Gilligan Wheller. I haven't had the time yet to go through it, but I peeked at some of the mail art inside - brilliant work! Can't wait to get home and take my time to devour this book.
But this week was a good mail week in general. I got lots and lots of wonderful mail. In the first picture you can see a gorgeous vintage letter set which I found at a well known online auction site and that came earlier this week. A few gorgeous postcards from postcrossing arrived too:

 1. from Graeme (Australia) , 2. from Hanna (Ukraine) , 3. from Monika (Lithuania)

1. a gorgeous self painted postcard from Kris (USA), 2. a funny little dog from  wurlog in Vienna, 

3. this inspiration painter came form Denise (USA)

1. This beautiful view of the Charles Bridge in Prague came from Veronika as part of a private swap.

2. from another private swap this time with Suvi, came this map card of Europa. I love this card because all the countries are labeled in finish and swedish and I think it's interesting to search for speech differences.

3. all the way from Weirs Beach, New Hampshire came this gorgeous view of Lake Winnipersaukee, according to Dibbie this is a hot spot for motorcyclists and sun bathers.

4. Just one butterfly arrived this week - but a beautiful one- It's a Common Blue Morpho and was sent by Amie from Houston, Texas.

Last but not least came an amazing card from Adrienne (New Zealand). It's a maxi card with a view over Milford Sound to Mitre Peak.

Music Monday

Technically it's not monday anymore but who cares, have some music anyway.

I love 30 seconds to mars. Period. And no I don't call myself "emo" and I don't care what everone else says. I just like them - and their videos.

On another note, I received this wonderful card from Felice and happily stuck it to the other butterflies on my photowall.

Great mistake. The moment my roommate saw this newest addition - she frantically demanded that I took it down, because that is apparently a moth and not a butterfly. That's life with a zoologist - crazy!

good mail day

I received the most gorgeous butterfly card today. It was from Loes on Postcrossing and apart from being a beautiful addition to my collection this butterfly wears the german collors ;D I have no idea what this species is called officially but henceforth I shall name him "german flag butterfly". Oh I love getting mail.

Other than that I sent a few cards out myself, as well as letters to my penpals in India and the Netherlands.

sometimes people surprise you...

... in a good way.   

            

 Today I found a suspicious looking envelope in my mailbox, but it was too thick to be just a bill. Guess what I discovered after opening it.

Three postcards and a little note "Thank you for following my blog". It came from Igor who writes a great blog in german. Go check him out!
I was so happy about this unexpected surprise that I just had to sent something back. Because he blogged once about this toppic - then and now - I chose two viewcard of the same building - now and then ;D

Other than that I finished writing 27 postcards for a new round robin at the postcrossing forum.

And I prepared a little "get well soon" envelope for lovely Eva, 'cause she's feeling a little sick at the moment.

Music Monday

I was thinking that this blog needs some kind of schedule. I am good with schedules so maybe this will keep me on track with my posts. So today I participate in my own version of the Twitter Hashtag  #MusicMonday.   Everyone likes a bit of music in their day right?

So let's have a look at my newest obsession: Patrick Wolf. This guy is awesome, not only because he plays every instrument known to mankind but because he mixes classical music with electronic sounds and that is exactly what I like best.



If you like what you hear, go check out his homepage, where you can get additional music samples and videos.

But on to the really important things of life - mail.
I had a slow weekend. Lot's of rain and grey clouds kept me inside, snuggled up on my sofa and lots of time to catch up with some tags and swap-postcards.

my outgoing postcards

 a few new butterflies for my collection 

 1. Goßlar in Germany from Danyel, 2. Nördlingen in Germany from Nordseefan through the german round robin 

3. this is actually a card I had marked as a favorite and Iomen, who originally sent the card, contacted me to ask if I would be interested in a private swap - of course I was ;D Isn't this card gorgeous?

4. this lovely multiview postcard comes from my very first postcard-pal Magda from Poland and shows the Millenium Bridge, the city hall, the Raclawice Panorama and the Centennial Hall in Wroclaw.

1. this beautiful windmill comes from Aurora in Campo de Cripta, Spain. These windmills are world famous, even Miguel de Cervantes mentioned them in his "Don Quixote". Since 1978, the entire group of windmills was declared a Monument of Historical-Artistic Interest, which today is referred to as a Cultural Heritage Site[1].

2. Kaheli sends greetings from Finland and 3. Cathy from France.

1. A picture of the most visited tourist attraction of Ireland [2] arrived from Elke.

2. Vaishakhi sent my first postcard from India and even decorated it with the most lovely butterfly sticker on the back ;D

3. This card shows one of the few remaining "gin pole" installations in Red Wing, Minnesota and was sent by Jason. These Floating oathouses ride up and down on poles, adjusting to the river level. 

4. And lastly Gerrit sent this lovely little card from Amersfoort in the Netherlands.

getting back into penpaling

I think I started writing letters at the age of eight or nine. I remember meeting a nice girl during summer camp – Melanie. We hit it of straight away and said a tearful goodbye on our last day. Because she lived in Hamburg and I came from Freiburg – the other end of Germany, we knew we wouldn't see each other again. So we started writing letters and postcards to stay in touch. It was the time before e-mail, twitter and facebook.
Later I found pen pals in Finland and France even in far away Florida. Maybe we didn't write as often as we could have, but we kept it up for many years - well into high school. As time went on, technology progressed, we all got busy with jobs and university, the letters started to come less frequent and eventually stopped coming at all. But my love for writing letters never ceased.
So I've spent some time web surfing and sifting through dating sites, pen pal agencies, blogs and message boards and ultimately found some people who, like me, wanted to revive the old art of letter writing. I sent out a view introduction letters and finally today my reward came in form of a beautiful letter from India.

What a wonderful feeling. Imagine going to your letterbox and instead of your telephone bill there's a thick envelope with foreign stamps and your address in scrawly handwriting. Isn't this the best thing ever? Knowing someone far away has been thinking of you, took the time and chose some nice paper to write to you – it kept me smiling the whole day.

Canada - Bay de Verde

From a land far, far away - read Newfoundland & Labrador in Canada - came this card showing Bay de Verde which is apparently a good place for whale watching.  Located at the top of Conception Bay, Bay de Verde forms the most eastern point of the peninsula separating Trinity and Conception Bay.
 

If I were a butterfly...

Ever since I was a kid I loved butterflies. We used to have them in our garden every summer and my sister and I would give them names and made up stories of their travels. So of course I squealed like a little girl when my first butterfly-postcard landed in my mailbox and thus a new addiction was born.
This peacock butterfly came all the way from the Netherlands and was sent by Lisette. She's apparently also a huge fan of this fragile creatures, even going as far as planting special flowers in her garden to attract them.

 Immediately after I received my first butterfly postcard I changed my profile asking people to send those cards if they would happen to have them lying around. And because postcrossers are awesome like that just a few days after Julia sent me another peacock butterfly from Bassum in Germany and Karin sent a card from Graz in Austria with many tiny ones flying around. 

Russia - Saint Petersburg

From Saint Petersburg in Russia arrived this postcard showing the Winter Palace, arguably the most famous sight of the city. From 1732 to 1917 the Winter Palace was the official residence if the tsars, 1905 and 1917 it became scene of the Russian Revolution and today it is part of the complex of buildings housing the Hermitage Museum. 

Czech Republic - Brno

 

This postcard was sent by lentilki showing the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul in Brno - the second largest city in the Czech Republic.For me this is a very precious card because lentilki took the time to search not only for a postcard with a purple frame but also for purple stamps and even wrote a recipe for "rose syrup" on the back. 

Rose Syrup ala lentilki

Take 2 handful of dry rose petals and pour 1/2 litre of boiling water on them. Leave this for 24h in a warm place. Strain through and add 1/2 kg sugar. Boil until it gets thick then eat 2-4 spoons daily to support your health. 

Germany - Essen

Michaela sent this lovely card from Essen - the European Capital of Cultur 2010.
The picture in the upper left corner shows he Zollverein World Heritage Site – also known as “the world’s most beautiful coal mine” .
Sadly I've never been to Essen and can't identify the other scenes. Help anyone?

USA - Grand Canyon

All the way from Minnesota came this card showing the Grand Canyon from below. This outcrop of Precambrian diorite is supposedly the most gloriously sculptured rock in the Grand Canyon.

The UNESCO lists the Grand Canyon as World Heritage since 1979.

Great Britain - Battle

The next postcard came from Valerie and Matthew who live in a small seaside town near Hastings on the south coast of England. Battle is about 8 miles away and this is where the Battle of Hastings took place in 1066.

Japan - geisha

Freestyle sent me this beautiful geisha from Ota, Japan, she even sketched a little cupcake on the back because I mentioned in my profile that I like cooking.



These little things make even the most random notes really special to me and I remember grinning the whole day this card arrived.

Greece

In the middle of January this lovely postcard from Greece arrived to brighten my day. It shows the typical colors of the greek islands.

What makes it really special though is the fact, that it was sent by a little baby called Xenia. Her mother apparently thought it a brilliant idea to let her daughter grow up with lots of beautiful postcards from all over the world and created a postcrossing account for her.

snowman from romania

My first received card arrived from Romania and was sent by fundlandhuman. It traveled for 9 days over 1,458 km.

The picture was apparently drawn by disabled children and sold for charity.

Isn't that a great card to start an addiction?

The Begining

The dreadful first post. What to write... what to write...

I decided to start this blog after having received a few international postcards via postcrossing, and being fascinated by every single one of them. Of course reading all the other beautiful postcrossing-blogs out there helped a lot too.
I'd like to learn more about the world I live in, like to discover it one card at a time and maybe you will enjoy this journey with me!